Of Monsters and Men

Endurance

Endurance
Endurance is the ability to keep performing physical activity despite fatigue or injury. It’s a measure of the body’s resistance to shock and effort. As well as fatigue, Endurance measures how well a character shrugs off poisons and disease (see page 178). Characters with a high Endurance include explorers, warriors and sailors. Endurance is a passive skill; players rarely need to ask to roll. Instead, the Story Teller calls for rolls when appropriate. Endurance is particularly relevant as a restricting skill in long-term actions, when a character’s ability to keep performing at peak is limited by how well he overcomes fatigue and pain, which is why top athletes rank Endurance on a par with (or better than!) Athletics. Someone with high Athletics and low Endurance may be a good sprinter, but will find themselves falling behind in a marathon. Endurance also determines a character’s Physical stress capacity (the character’s Physical stress points), since Physical stress represents health, wounds and fatigue. Characters normally start with 5 boxes for their Physical stress track: an Endurance score above Mediocre (+0) grants more:

Endurance

Phsical Stress

Average or Fair

+1

Good or Great

+2

Superb or Fantastic

+3

Stunts
Persistence
Last Leg (Endurance)
The character won’t go down without a fight. Whenever you suffer a Physical consequence, you may spend a Fate

Stunts

Persistence

Last Leg (Endurance)
The character won’t go down without a fight. Whenever you suffer a Physical consequence, you may spend a Fate point to delay that consequence for another exchange, or until you take another consequence, whichever comes first. You may keep spending Fate points as long as you have them: when you run out, or stop spending them on this stunt, all delayed effects come to bear at once. This means that with a whole handful of Fate points you might carry on for three exchanges with no consequences, then suddenly keel over from Multiple Bruises, a Broken Rib, Internal Bleeding, and whatever else you have coming. If that includes more than three consequences, you’re taken out, even if the attacker has been defeated in the interim!

Feel the Burn (Endurance)
The character can push through incredible pain to reach his goal. You can take one extra Major Physical consequence (see page 161), allowing you to take a total of four consequences in a physical conflict before being taken out.

Tireless (Endurance)
Normally, someone missing a night’s sleep takes a consequence indicating his lack of rest, which can only be removed by getting the requisite amount of sleep. Not the character with this stunt. Whenever the character needs to sleep, roll Endurance and spend the shifts generated to reduce the amount of time needed for a regular night’s rest. Each shift reduces the time increment for a full night’s rest by one: one shift reduces 6-8 hours to 3-4; two down to an hour; three to half an hour; and four to a few minutes. The character may continue sleeping past that point, but if awoken suddenly he’s had sufficient sleep and is refreshed and alert. The difficulty is Mediocre (+0),
plus one for each night of sleep skipped. On a failure, the character must sleep 6-8 hours to “reset” the clock; if he
succeeds on subsequent nights, and chooses to sleep, he can still sleep for the truncated amount of time.

Recovery

Bounce Back (Endurance)
The character heals faster than usual, reducing the severity of consequences resulting from physical injury. Reduce the amount of time to recover from a given consequence by two steps on the Time Increments Table (page 178): Minor physical consequences are removed between scenes even if there’s no “break” between them; Major consequences take about an hour of rest instead of six; Severe consequences reduce from a few weeks to a few days; and Extreme consequences are removed in a few weeks.

Shake It Off (Endurance)
Requires Bounce Back
The character doesn’t let minor cuts and bruises get in his way. Once per exchange, as a full action, you can roll Endurance against a difficulty equal to your current Physical stress damage, and clear Physical stress damage equal to the shifts generated.

Death Defiance (Endurance)
If a character is ever taken out away from the view of other characters and death appears imminent, certain, or absolute (such as dropping off a cliff, being swallowed by a dragon, and so on), then coincidence conspires to keep the character alive. Spend half your remaining Fate points, rounded up (minimum one), to survive against all odds. Once you have a story, your character re-enters play in a subsequent scene in as dramatic a fashion as you see fit, with his Physical stress cleared and a Major consequence reflecting the dangers survived. This stunt doesn’t protect a character from dying “on camera”.

Developed Immunities (Endurance)
Requires one other Endurance stunt Through natural aptitude or careful exposure, the character is immune to most common poisons, and highly resistant to uncommon ones. You receive a +2 Endurance bonus when resisting poisons not previously encountered, and a +6 when resisting poisons you’ve encountered already, even in trace amounts.

Toughness

Thick-Skinned (Endurance)
This character doesn’t feel pain, and absorbs more punishment than others. You get one more Physical stress box above those granted by your Endurance bonus, eg with Superb (+5) Endurance you’d have nine Physical stress boxes.

One Hit to the Body (Endurance)
Requires Thick-Skinned
The character’s toughness verges on the unreal. Once per session, pay a Fate point to either ignore the stress caused by one attack, as long as no consequences would be applied; or reduce the severity of a consequence you’ve just incurred by one step.

Made of Steel (Endurance)
Requires One Hit to the Body
The character ignores the first point of Physical stress taken each exchange.

Now You’ve Made Me Mad (Endurance)
Requires two other Endurance stunts
The character can turn a wound into pure motivation. Once per scene, after taking Physical stress, spend a Fate pointto add a bonus to your next exchange’s action equal to the stress taken from an attack, as long as the action is against the person who inflicted the stress in the first place